The 2023 NFL regular season has finally arrived.
The New Orleans Saints will be at home in the Caesars Superdome this Sunday as they host the Tennessee Titans. It will be the start of the Derek Carr era in the Big Easy after he spent his first nine years in the league with the Oakland-Las Vegas Raiders.
Now that the Saints have a more well-rounded signal caller, the offense should be able to open up more and have plenty of opportunities to go down the field with their different weapons on the outside.
Other notable players that are new and will be suiting up for the Black and Gold will be running back Jamaal Williams, who had his best season in 2022 as he had career highs in rushing attempts with 262, yards with 1,066, and first downs with 65, and 17 touchdowns (league high). Michael Thomas is healthy once again but is expected to have a reduced role in this offense as second-year wide receiver Chris Olave looks to take a step forward and be the alpha in the receiver room.
Even with a lot of talent on offense, New Orleans will be missing their best playmaker Alvin Kamara, who will not be available as he will be serving the first of his three-game suspension for his involvement in a fight in Las Vegas during the 2022 Pro Bowl.
On the defensive side, the Saints still have impact players like Cam Jordan, Demario Davis, Marshon Lattimore, and Tyrann Mathieu. They will look to get back to their old way of being an elite run defense after they ranked 24th in the league in rushing yards given up per game at 130.5.
New Orleans made some major changes to special teams as they traded kicker Wil Lutz to the Denver Broncos ahead of the initial 53-man roster cuts to make Blake Grupe their new starter and replaced punter Blake Gillikin in favor of 30-year old rookie Lou Hedley from Australia.
For Tennesse, not much changed offensively as Derrick Henry still reigns as the king of that backfield that finished second in the league in rushing yards with 1,538 and 13 touchdowns in 2022. The Titans also drafted former Tulane Green Wave running back Tyjae Spears in the third round and he should see action in this game.
Ryan Tannehill remains for now as their starting quarterback with some options at wide receiver and tight end. They signed Pro Bowl wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins over a month ago and are still developing young talent such as second-year pass catchers Treylon Burks and Chigoziem Okonkwo.
The Titans’ defense didn’t change much either with Jeffery Simmons as the anchor of the defensive line that finished first in rush yards allowed per game with 76.9 last year. Harold Landry III is another guy in the front seven who should be impactful in this game as he recorded a career-high 12 sacks in 2022. Kevin Byard is their ball hawk at free safety who has recorded 27 interceptions since 2017.
Dennis Allen enters his second year as head coach in New Orleans and has a coaching record of 18-47 compared to Titans coach Mike Vrabel’s 48-34 record as he enters his sixth year with Tennessee.
Since 2019, the Saints are 4-0 in week one games with their largest margin of victory being a 38-3 win over the Green Bay Packers in 2021.
The Saints have a 6-9-1 all-time record against the Titans organization, including when they were known as the Houston Oilers. Since the move to Tennessee, New Orleans is just 2-5 with their latest win coming in the 2019 season. That is when the Saints won 38-28 and Thomas broke the record for most catches in a single season. Both wins were with Drew Brees under center and on the road with the last Black and Gold home victory coming on September 5, 1993, when they won 33-21.
With the history against the Titans/Oilers not in favor of New Orleans and this being Carr’s first game with the Black and Gold, the offense will likely struggle to be on the same page which will lead to a low-scoring game. That would play into the hands of a Tennessee team that relies on controlling the clock with their running game and playing good defense.
The game between the New Orleans Saints and Tennessee Titans will kick off in the Caesars Superdome on Sunday, September 10th at 12:00 p.m.